1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electro-optical device such as a liquid crystal device, to a method of manufacturing the electro-optical device, and to an electronic apparatus such as a liquid crystal projector.
2. Related Art
In general, an electro-optical device includes pixel electrodes, scanning lines for selectively driving the pixel electrodes, data lines, and TFTs (thin film transistors) serving as pixel switching elements, all of which are provided on a substrate, and can be driven by an active matrix drive manner. Further, in order to improve contrast, a storage capacitor may be provided between the TFT and the pixel electrode. The above-mentioned elements are provided on the substrate in high density, which improves the aperture ratio of the pixel and reduces the size of the device (for example, see JP-A-2002-156652).
Recently, electro-optical devices have been required to have further improved display quality and to have a smaller size and higher definition. In response to the requirements, various measures including the above-mentioned measures have been taken. For example, a light-shielding layer may be provided around a semiconductor layer of a TFT in order to prevent display quality from deteriorating due to light leak current caused by light incident on the semiconductor layer. Further, it is preferable for the storage capacitor to have capacitance as large as possible and to be designed so as not to sacrifice the aperture ratio of the pixel. Furthermore, it is preferable for these many circuit elements to be provided on the substrate in a high density so as to reduce the size of the device.
Meanwhile, the shape or manufacturing method of an electronic element such as a storage capacitor of such an electro-optical device has been devised and various techniques has been proposed to improve the device performance and the production yield (for example, see JP-A-6-3703 and JP-A-7-49508).
However, in the various techniques according to the related art, as the functionality or the performance improves, the laminated structure on the substrate becomes complicated. This makes the manufacturing method more complicated and thus reduces the production yield. In contrast, when the laminated structure on the substrate or the manufacturing process is simplified, the display quality may deteriorate due to degradation in its light-shielding performance, and in particular, the deterioration of the image signal caused by parasitic capacitance existing in the pixel electrode and the lower layer thereof.